Castle District - Fishermen's Bastion

Just up the road from the Royal Palace is the Fishermen's Bastion.

While the savage seas were at the hands of cutthroat pirates, inland rivers were not the safe haven's you might imagine, but rather were frequented by lesser pirates who would bully regional fishermen and hit on the local women until they were able to upgrade to full fledged sea pirate status. In response the fishermen built this impressive Bastion and guarded it from Danube pirates, some of the roughest river pirates out there.

In the center, behind the walls is the Matthias Church. It is a little bit smaller, but very nice. Unfortunately there was some construction going on all around it and the church's spire was mostly covered up.

I went inside and there was a Norwegian Men's Chorus singing. I couldn't understand anything they sang, but they sounded nice. For one of their songs everyone stood up while they sang (well a few did, I imagine whoever understood or identified what they were singing). I don't know any church hymns that you do that for so I am banking on it being the Norwegian national anthem. I stood.

Every church that I went into had these nifty little side podiums. I am not sure if this is where the priests deliver sermons or if these are only for special occasions, but they are pretty ornate though they are almost camouflage since everything inside is pretty ornate.

There were lots of very nice murals and some great stained glass windows all over the walls.

Just outside the church is a central area just behind the bastion wall. There is another great statue, I think of this Matthias character. He seems pretty religious and saintly. It is on an impressive stand with addition statues and carvings.

Surrounding this statue was a little plaza like area where some festival falconers were hanging out offering people pictures with their birds for some forints (money). I, like most people, simply applied my zoom and got some pictures for free. They charge depending on the size of the bird. I only saw a few customers go for it. Their hawk was the cheapest one.

Then their falcon.

And most expensive, their beastly golden eagle.

There were more cool statues carved along both sides of the front stairs. I think they depict famous fishermen guardians and their weapons of choice for bashing pirates and brigands.

On the side with the main road that leads down to the Royal Palace is another great spire that fortunately wasn't under construction like the church's spire. This one might be a little churchy too.

And lastly a cool staircase in the back taking you back to the bottom of the front side.

The bastion was one of my favorite sites in Budapest. It seems like the start of great castle, except built up the road from the actual castle.